settlers of catan  

Updated 11/30/2009

2009 WBC Report     

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Rick Dutton, MD

2009 Champion

Offsite Links

AREA Boardgamegeek
 

Event History
1999    Brad Johnson       94
2000    David Platnick     175
2001    Craig O'Brien       93
2002    David Buchholz     102
2003    Charlie Faella     131
2004    Aran Warszawski     110
2005     Rob Effinger     100
2006    Roy Gibson     102
2007    Tom Stokes     132
2008     Matt Tolman     113
2009     Rick Dutton     113

Euro Quest Event History
2003    Brian Reynolds     29
2004    William Duke     30
2005     Legend Dan Hoffman     37
2006     Donna Dearborn     54
2007     Brian Reynolds     45
2008     Tom Dunning     56
2009     Brian Reynolds     55
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rick Dutton        MD    09    114
  2.  Charlie Faella     RI    09     96
  3.  Tom Dunning        NY    09     87
  4.  Matt Tolman        UT    09     84
  5.  Brian Reynolds     MD    09     83
  6.  Roy Gibson         MD    06     66
  7.  Tom Stokes         NJ    07     60
  8.  Rob Effinger       on    05     60
  9.  Aran Warszawski    is    04     60
 10.  David Buchholz     MI    02     60
 11.  Craig O'Brien      VA    01     60
 12.  David Platnick     VA    00     60
 13.  Christian Moffa    NJ    03     54
 14.  Kathy Stroh        PA    01     54
 15.  Joe Jaskiewicz     MD    06     51
 16.  Rodney Davidson    AZ    04     42
 17.  Cheryl Meek        MD    07     37
 18.  Ken Nied           KS    06     36
 19.  Jim Fishkin        FL    05     36
 20.  Michelle Hymowitz  MD    04     36
 21.  William Duke       MD    04     36
 22.  George Brace       MA    03     36
 23.  Brian Conlon       OK    00     36
 24.  Josh Githens       SC    07     30
 25.  Donna Dearborn     MD    06     30
 26.  Brad Johnson       IL    99     30
 27.  Harald Henning     CT    08     24
 28.  Jon Izer           MD    07     24
 29.  Virginia Colin     VA    06     24
 30.  Jeff Bowers        UT    05     24
 31.  Tom Saal           MI    03     24
 32.  Alan Sudy          VA    02     24
 33.  Kim Foster         TX    00     24
 34.  Legend Dan Hoffman MD    05     20
 35.  Daniel Ottey       PA    09     18
 36.  Shivendra Chopra   MD    09     18
 37.  William Lawhorn    VA    09     18
 38.  Bob Wicks, Jr      CT    08     18
 39.  Mikkel Christensen dk    08     18
 40.  Pierre LeBoeuf     MD    07     18
 41.  Jed Shambeda       PA    06     18
 42.  Haim Hochboim      is    04     18
 43.  Mike Musko         FL    03     18
 44.  Marvin Pinkert     MD    02     18
 45.  Chuck Krueger      MA    01     18
 46.  Ike Porter         MD    99     18
 47.  Andrew Roosen      MD    09     12
 48.  Mike Brazinski     MD    08     12
 49.  Sue Lanham         MD    08     12
 50.  Rob Kircher        RI    07     12
 51.  Bob Runnicles      FL    06     12
 52.  Mike Richey        VA    05     12
 53.  Thomas Browne      PA    04     12
 54.  David Burkey       PA    04     12
 55.  Charie Hickok      PA    03     12
 56.  Scott Buckwalter   MD    03     12
 57.  Jon Shambeda       PA    02     12
 58.  Jenn Thomas        NY    02     12
 59.  Kevin Wojtasczcyk  NY    01     12
 60.  Chuck Smith        PA    99     12
 61.  Bill Zurn          CA    09      9
 62.  Bill Murdock       NY    08      9
 63.  Tom McCorry        VA    03      9
 64.  Carl Damcke        IL    99      9
 65.  Eric Freeman       PA    07      8
 66.  John Weber         MD    09      6
 67.  Peter Eirich       MD    08      6
 68.  Nick Henning       CT    08      6
 69.  Jonathan Yonce     VA    07      6
 70.  Michael Shea       CT    07      6
 71.  Andrew Arconti     MD    06      6
 72.  Phil Rennert       MD    06      6
 73.  Marty Hoff         TX    04      6
 74.  Katherine McCorry  VA    03      6
 75.  Larry Loiacano     PA    07      4
 76.  Andrew Gerb        MD    05      4
 77.  Steve Shambeda     PA    09      3
 78.  Sandy Scanlon      MD    08      3
 79.  Joshua Cooper      MD    03      3
 80.  Jamie Tang         MD    99      3
 81.  Laurel Stokes      NJ    05      2

2009 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists:

Charles Faella, RI
2nd

Matt Tolman, UT
3rd

Daniel Ottey, PA
4th

Andrew Roosen, MD
5th

Tom Dunning, NY
6th


Past Winners

Brad Johnson, IL
1999

David Platnick, VA
2000

Craig O'Brien, VA
2001

David Buchholz, MI
2002

Charlie Faella, RI
2003

Aram Warszawski, Israel
2004

Rob Effinger, ON
2005

Roy Gibson, MD
2006

Tom Stokes, NJ
2007

Matt Tolman, UT
2008

Matt Tolman bested Rich Meyers to advance from this table
as the attrition to the title progresses.

Joe Maiz and his helpers ran the Settlers event for the first time - no small feat for a single start event drawing in excess of 100 players.

Spiel das Jahre 1995 ...

For 2009, we used the same format that KOSMOS uses for their tournaments in Europe, with one difference. This has each player placing a Settlement/Road, a City/Road, followed by another Road. The resources given to each player was based on the city location and allowed players to collect two per location. This gets the game off to a quicker start. It also helps keep the games moving along with 90 minute rounds (including setup and initial placements). This format worked well, and we did not have any games called due to time. 

The format has players settling in three preliminary games. Each of these games earns the players points, which are based on placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (5, 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively). The 16 highest scoring settlers at the end of the three rounds advance to the semi-finals. Ties were based on winning in round 1, 2, 3 and a point win margin, if needed. 

Overall, Settlers was fun to run. I did ask for feedback and was rewarded with lots of suggestions and positive feedback. Next years tournament will have a lot of the corrections needed, such as one good per tile, to make the game more competitive and less luck on your setup and rolls. As a GM, I will provide the necessary adjustments and provide more information on setup, rules and other information that was requested in the feedback in order to give all of the players a positive experience. 

All games had new players in each of the three initial rounds, so it worked to the benefit of the game to accommodate new players in all of the rounds. With a total of 113 players, there were 26 games played in the first round, 20 in the second round, including two 3-player games, and 18 in the third round. 

After the preliminaries, the number crunching for the top 16 began. In past years, a total of at least 11 + tournament points were needed to advance and this year was no exception. Of the 16 playoff players, only two won all three rounds; the rest of the semi-finalists had at least two wins. Tie-breakers were needed for the final slots.

The semis started on time and four tables were randomly setup. All four games were close throughout with the winner in each case prevailing by a single point. Dan Ottey, defending champ Matt Tolman, Rick Dutton and former champ Charles Faella advanced. Dan won 10-9-8-8, Rick 10-9-8-7, Charles 10-9-7-5 and Matt prevailed 10-9-8-5. In a large event where repeating is rare, three of the four finalists had sat at the Final table before.

FINAL PLACEMENT: Charles and Dan took the favorable wood-brick tiles while Rick and Matt took the ore-sheep tiles. After placing the initial cities and third road, Dan took the first roll and away we went. 

EARLY GAME: Round1 - Charles and Matt had two settlements built using their starting materials, Matt on the 3:1 trade port and Charles built another on the forest tile. Dan took the builder angle early, thus he and Charles were in the race for the longest road. Charles took the early lead on road building and eventually got the longest road by Round 4. Rolls seemed to favor the builders early, but when the ore tiles rolled, Rick made good use of trades to eventually build a second settlement. He took the Development card strategy and continued to buy at least one per turn. Eventually, the four red numbered tiles were filled - the 6 tiles had the brick and wood while the 8 tiles had the ore & sheep. Matt had setup on favorable tiles, but the rolls never happened to be in his favor, but eventually he was able to trade for goods. All trades were very selective and required 2-1 on goods to get something a player needed. 

MIDGAME: By the end of Round 5, points on the board were: Charles: 6 (one city, two settlements and longest road), Dan: 4, Matt: 4 (each having a city and two settlements) and Rick: 5 (two cities, one settlement). With Charles having cornered the wood-brick tiles, he was able to continue his longest road down the coast and trade for the occasional item needed to build. Rick continued his development card strategy and consistently had at least one card showing face down. He used the soldier cards to move the robber off his tiles to continue the ore-sheep tiles (both an 8 tile). Dan was giving Charles a run for his money on the road building as he was always 1-2 road segments behind him. Matt had unfortunate luck on rolls as his tiles never seemed to produce, and when they did he would get hit with the robber - one way or another. 

END GAME: Round 7- Scores at the end of this round were: Charles: 7, and the other players all had two cities and a settlement (5 total); The difference was Rick had two soldiers showing. 

In Round 8, Rick used another development card and played his soldier, giving him the largest army and a total of seven points. Charles then was able to get a needed ore and build a second city, giving him eight points as well. Dan took advantage of that and was then able to build the longest road and took the title from Charles, giving him seven points. Rick then was able to build a second settlement, giving him eight points. 

By the start of Round 9, the Longest road title was taken back by Charles. With two players on the brink of winning, Rick rolled his turn and the rolls were in order: 8-5-8-8 - giving Rick a total of six ore and nine sheep collected by the end of Round 9 on his turn. He was able to upgrade two settlements to cities and declare victory. End game scores were: Rick10, Charles 8, Matt 6, Dan 5. 

The finalists in their fifth game of the day ...

... under the watchful gaze of GM Joe Maiz.


2009 Euro Quest Laurelists

Brian Retnolds, MD
1st

William Lawhorne, VA
3rd

Bill Zurn, CA
4th

John Weber, MD
5th

Steve Shambeda, PA
6th


The batteries must be dead. Just where do you plug this thing in anyway?

An electronic die to reduce wristage. Yeah, who needs Phys Ed classes?

 Settlers Junior

In the Juniors event 17 pint-sized settlers engaged in empire building on a smaller scale. The best proved to be Jack Doughan, followed in order by Katie Breza, Thomas Melton, Dacey Collinson and Matthew Roizin-Prier.

 GM      Joseph Maiz  [1st Year]   NA
   striker511@gmail.com    856-278-4095 

2009 Preview Page | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page